(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an evaporated fuel processing apparatus.
(2) Description of Related Art
In order to prevent evaporated fuel from being emitted from a fuel tank or the like of a vehicle into atmosphere, the evaporated fuel generated in the fuel tank or the like is caused to flow into an evaporated fuel processing apparatus (hereinafter also referred to as “canister”) provided with an adsorbent layer filled with activated carbon that adsorbs/desorbs the evaporated fuel so as to cause the evaporated fuel to be temporarily adsorbed by the activated carbon.
Some of the evaporated fuel introduced into the canister may become a liquid component before being adsorbed to the activated carbon. When the activated carbon adsorbs this re-liquefied evaporated fuel, the adsorption performance of the activated carbon may deteriorate.
As a conventional canister that prevents deterioration of the adsorption performance of this activated carbon, a canister including a casing is known, in which the casing is provided with a tank port, a purge port and an atmospheric port, and the casing includes a vapor-liquid separator that separates evaporated fuel introduced from the tank port into a liquid phase component and a vapor phase component thereof, respectively (e.g., see JPA-2000-199455).
However, in the conventional canister, a filter for separating the vapor-liquid separator from the adsorbent layer is fixed to a bottom surface of a liquid storing member that makes up the vapor-liquid separator so as to store the liquid phase component, and therefore when activated carbon making up the adsorbent layer is refined due to vibration or the like, and when the volume of the adsorbent layer decreases, a space may be produced between the filter and the adsorbent layer. If the liquid storing member and the filter move up and down due to vibration or the like in the presence of this space, sound may be generated, and it is therefore necessary to firmly fix the liquid storing member within the casing to prevent the liquid storing member from moving up and down to thereby avoid sound from being generated.
Thus, since the liquid storing member needs to be firmly fixed within the casing by using orbital vibration welding or the like, there is a problem that large-scale equipment is required.